Empire of Ashes

Chapter LXXXIV - The Point of No Return

I splashed water over my face and neck. The wash bucket in Tem's room was a day old and freezing, but it was better than nothing. The chill chased all the sleepiness out of me, and everything seemed a shade brighter when I looked up.

Behind me, Tem was waiting his turn. We might have used our last few minutes together for something more exciting than washing, but we had company. Saqui had followed us to make sure we did not fall back into bed the second we were left alone, as far as I could tell.

As I was drying my face, Saqui swore. I glanced over my shoulder to see that he was glowering at Tem. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Because he was fastening a cloak around his shoulders.

"Relax," Tem laughed. "I am only coming as far as the corridor."

The disgust on Saqui's face showed exactly what he thought of that, but he didn't argue. There was no bloody point. Temris Ragnyrsbane asked neither forgiveness nor permission, and every minute we spent arguing was another minute for the corridors to fill with servants.

While Tem took his turn to wash, I knocked shoulders with the assassin. "When this is done, are you coming back to Cambria with us?"

The question surprised him. He had the sudden urge to pick the dirt from beneath his fingernails. "I've been bound into service my whole life. I would like to see the world beyond Aenmia. Roam free a while. But after that... I don't know. Perhaps."

"You should," I told him. "When you're ready, you should."

"I'm not convinced I would be welcome there," Saqui sighed.

It was a pointed comment, so obviously directed at Temris, but he didn't turn around. "Help us tomorrow and you can join the corps for all I care. You might be a killer and a traitor twice over, but you're good for Fendur."

And Saqui didn't know what to say. He blinked and looked down at the floor and eventually just turned around and went back into the main chamber. Tem and I were left alone.

"That was nice of you," I said, narrowing my eyes.

"Mm," he replied, and he sounded as surprised as I was. "It was, wasn't it?"

"I wonder what has put you in such a good mood."

I was rewarded with a flashing grin. We were a little too close. He tucked my hair behind my ear and started kissing his way up my neck. When I felt him nip at my earlobe, I curled my fingers around his belt and tugged him closer still.

As if he could sense it, Saqui appeared in the doorway and cleared his throat very pointedly. It was time to go, and that was probably for the best. We had risked enough already tonight. We returned to the main chamber with a bare minimum of feet-dragging and heated glances.

Fendur groaned when he saw us — well, more specifically, the cloak. He was on his feet and ready to follow in two seconds flat. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Sit," Tem said in that tone which left no room for argument. "Stay."

"He will be back in a minute," I told the Iyrak, putting him out of his misery.

We stepped outside. The cloak hid Tem's face well enough, and that damning golden hair, but he was still too tall and well-built to pass for a kitchen slave. Halfway down the corridor, we found a brazier-lit alcove — the junction between the quieter servant passages and the busier thoroughfare — and Saqui stopped in his tracks.

"This is as far as you go," he said, "or we will get caught."

We didn't bother to answer him. Tem leant down to catch my lips with his own. He had taken me by surprise, so he didn't find it very difficult to push me backwards. My back hit the wall, and he pinned me there, bracing his hands against the stones to make sure I couldn't move an inch.